Reader Mail

Are You Open To The Public? A good point was made of which I think most pilots/public are not aware. That is… the FAA neither approves or disapproves any building of radio towers and such. As an FAAer for years, I took an Obstruction Evaluation course about 25 years ago. So between my memory and […]

Flying Freight In The Corona Crisis Nice write-up, but…let’s not forget the “real” heroes that make your mission possible. The “army” that includes the folks that: a) work location is non-optional, b) every bit at risk (more so because they work in a much less controlled environment), c) paid a small fraction of “freight dog” […]

FAA Stops Medical Enforcement Until June 30 This FAA enforcement policy for expired medical certificates (the non-enforcement policy between March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020) leaves a big open question about pilot insurance policies. The FAA did not extend the effective date of medical certificates expiring during this time period, the FAA just said […]

FAA Rejects Collings Foundation Request To Carry Passengers The problems the FAA are citing Collings Foundation is poor maintenance, poor record-keeping of maintenance performed, and maintenance people unaware of operational procedures/requirements of the LHFE [Living History Flight Exemptions] program. The FAA’s refusal to reissue the LHFE program to Collings is based on all of the […]

Midway Tower Closed for Decontamination I was one of the few VFR pilots that flew into MDW the other day and took full advantage of the unique Class E airspace in a 172 before the 7-day TFR was issued. Several users on aviation forums have posted comments … that this operation was “Dangerous” and “Risky.” […]

Covid-19, Aviation And Community Responsibility Paul, I appreciate the “b—-” it took to write this blog including posting some startling facts should anyone take the time to carefully study and corroborate. I read, re-read, and read again these statistics which represent the stark reality of this pandemic and the potential consequences for inaction, malaise, and […]

Accident Probe: Unwarranted I and another innocent passenger once survived an 18-hour trip through hell with a clown act ‘pilot.’ The pilot was a coworker and fellow aviation enthusiast who owned a C-182. Turns out he was reckless, careless, all wrapped in a ‘what’s the matter you scared,’ attitude. There were no regulations he didn’t […]

Common Sense vs. E-Everything Austin Meyer here from Laminar Research. I wrote the flight simulator X-Plane and I am currently using it to evaluate a number of eVTOL aircraft, including several that I am consulting or otherwise working on. Jason Baker recently wrote a blog here titled “Common Sense vs. E-Everything” In this blog, Jason […]

Altitude Changes Cut Contrail Effects This article riles me up! Based upon six weeks of study in Japan, a UK civil engineer is pontificating to the aviation industry (sic). I dug through my files and reminded myself of an interesting book, “Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything.” “When it comes to global warming, […]

Of Mice And Men Who Hate Them My solution to the rodent problem: 1. Own taildraggers only for personal airplanes, 2. Store the airplane with the tailwheel on top of a 2-foot-tall overturned plastic bucket, 3. Fly the airplane regularly. If 1 and 2 don’t keep mice away, 1 will at least give you a […]